Nice Carnival 2016 Flower Parade

Nice Carnival 2016 offered parades of charm and beauty with the floats of the Flower Parades, illustrating with gorgeous flowers the year’s theme of King of Media.

Nice Carnival 2016 floats were designed on the theme of the sovereign reigning over Nice for three weeks in February: Her Majesty Carnival King of Media. On each float of the procession, opened by the float of the Carnival Queen and her Dauphines, some beautiful models dressed in gorgeous costumes, threw some 100 000 flowers to the public gathered on the Promenade des Anglais.

A spectacle unique in the world

The Flower Parade is a unique show, combining elegance, beauty and charm, animated by troops of musicians, street artists and strange or quirky attractions. Fully carpeted with flowers, 16 floats parade on the Quai des Etats-Unis and the Promenade des Anglais. Models, sumptuously dressed in wildly original costumes, add to the show a unique festive look. The girls throw to the public armfuls of flowers: mimosa, roses, gladioli, gerberas, dahlias, lilies… the greedy hands of the spectators catch and greet them by cheers. The Flower Parades offers a beautiful alchemy between the floats, the beautiful costumes on the theme of the year, the entertainment, street art and music troupes.

Thousands of flowers as gift

A floral tank dimensions are of the order of 6 m high, 7 meters long, 2 meters wide. Their achievement is the fruit of a long and meticulous work of 72 hours stitching flowers in the night and morning before each “battle”. The decoration is made by hand, with 3,000 stems per float, or around 50 000 stems per Battle of Flowers. As for theater, the mannequins’ costumes are unique, made in a creative workshop. 4 tons of mimosa are offered to the public at each parade and the event promotes the quality and great floral variety of the French Riviera, since 80% of the flowers come from local producers.

The Flower Parades origins

Alphonse Karr launched the idea of the “Bataille de Fleurs”: the writer residing in Nice, passionate of flower, dreamed of a show where people could “throw fragrant bouquets to each other’s face.” In 1876, Andriot Saëtone, creator of the Comité des Fêtes (Festival Committee), launched the first battle on the Promenade des Anglais. Initially scheduled to entertain the first tourists, they took the form of simple exchange of flowers, but gradually turned into a real show.

Carnival King of – Social – Media

In February, the Nice Carnival site – nicecarnaval.com – welcomed more than 390,000 visitors, mostly from France, Italy, USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Monaco, Spain, Belgium. The “mobile” visitors – smartphones and tablets – are now 61% to connect to the site in this way. The Nice Carnival Facebook page has over 40,600 fans, or 8.7% of new fans over 2015. On the Carnival of Nice 2016, 60 publications have generated more than 4,400 comments, 62,700 reactions and 13,300 shares. The Carnival cultural competition have generated 2,519 #nicecarnaval publications on Instagram and 1,179 participants tried their luck at the Facebook game.

Christian Estrosi, President of the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur Region, Mayor of Nice, announced the theme that will be treated next year. In 2017, Nice Carnival will be King of Energy from 10 to 26 February.